Ten Striders ventured to Birchwood Park, Warrington for this year's Cheshire 'Cross Country Championships'. Although Striders have previously dabbled with cross country events with mixed success, it's something as a club which has never taken off, this year however there was a surge of enthusiasm, and for the first time we entered both a mens and ladies team.
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| Striders at the Cheshire Cross Country Championships |
The ladies ran first, they ran 4 laps of an undulating course with steep ascents and descents, and numerous boggy muddy puddles,( that doesn't tell the full story!) of a 7.5km course. The team consisted off Heather Carter, Lynsey Astles and Jayne Turner out of 73 runners, they came in 19th, 64th and 68th respectively, a great run by Heather.
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| Lynsey Astles at the Cheshire Cross Country Championships |
The mens race was slightly longer, 5 laps of the same course, 10km in total with 147 runners. Darren Varley came in first in 49th position, followed by Andy Thomas in 83rd, Tony Taylor in 86th, Mick Hutchins in 108th, Tom Mayell in 131st and Nigel Fishwick in 137th.
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| Mick Hutchins at the Cheshire Cross Country Championships |
My main goal as unofficial team captain, was not to be last, the ladies exceeded expectations and came 15th out of 18 teams, the mens team came 15th out of 16, so mission accomplished. However the mens vet team (including Andy, Mick, Tom and myself), came bottom of the pile 19th ( NOTE TO SELF - MUST DO BETTER!!)
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| Heather Carter at the Cheshire Cross Country Championships |
A really enjoyable day with great camaraderie and team spirit, and hopefully the start of more Striders cross country teams in the near future.
Tony Taylor